Show me your paystub, I’ll show you mine

In this week’s issue of TIME, I presented a modest proposal for the persisting problem of pay inequity. The piece begins:

I have no clue what my colleagues make. I suspect some earn more than I do and others take home less. Like most American workers, I consider my salary my own damn business. Turns out that could be a big mistake–at least in the opinion of a petite grandmother with an Alabama drawl.

The article centers on Lilly Ledbetter, whom you’ve already read about in this earlier post. When I spoke to her again last week, she was disappointed that her eponymous bill had failed to pass muster in the Senate—but still determined not to let the issue die.

My proposal:

What if employers made all employee salaries known? If you think about it, who is served by all the secrecy? Not you.